This audiobook exposes the misconceptions, half-truths, and outright lies that have shaped the still dominant but largely mythical version of what happened in the White House during those harrowing two weeks of secret Cuban missile crisis deliberations. A half-century after the event it is surely time to demonstrate, once and for all, that RFK's Thirteen Days and the personal memoirs of other ExComm members cannot be taken seriously.

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The Week the World Stood Still: Inside the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis: Stanford Nuclear Age Series

The Cuban missile crisis was the most dangerous confrontation of the Cold War and the most perilous moment in American history. In this dramatic narrative written especially for students and general listeners, Sheldon M. Stern, longtime historian at the John F. Kennedy Library, enables the listener to follow the often harrowing twists and turns of the crisis.

Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence

The Weathermen. The Symbionese Liberation Army. The FALN. The Black Liberation Army. The names seem quaint now, when not forgotten altogether. But there was a stretch of time in America, during the 1970s, when bombings by domestic underground groups were a daily occurrence. The FBI combated these groups and others as nodes in a single revolutionary underground dedicated to the violent overthrow of the American government.

Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor

The dramatic account of one of America's most celebrated - and controversial - military campaigns: the Doolittle Raid. In December 1941, as American forces tallied the dead at Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt gathered with his senior military counselors to plan an ambitious counterstrike against the heart of the Japanese Empire: Tokyo.

The Red Flag: A History of Communism

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France 1940: Defending the Republic

In this revisionist account of France's crushing defeat in 1940, Philip Nord argues that the nation's downfall has long been misunderstood. Nord assesses France's diplomatic and military preparations for war with Germany, its conduct of the war once the fighting began, and the political consequences of defeat on the battlefield. Ultimately, he finds that the longstanding view that France's collapse was due to military unpreparedness and a decadent national character is unsupported by fact.

The Art of Betrayal: The Secret History of M16 - Life and Death in the British Secret Service

From Berlin to the Congo, from Moscow to the back streets of London, these are the stories of the agents on the front lines of British intelligence. And the truth is often more remarkable than fiction.

MI6 has been cloaked in secrecy and shrouded in myth since it was created a hundred years ago. Our understanding of what it is to be a spy has been largely defined by the fictional worlds of Ian Fleming and John le Carré. Gordon Corera provides a unique and unprecedented insight into this secret world and the reality that lies behind the fiction.

Potsdam: The End of World War II and the Remaking of Europe

After Germany's defeat in World War II, Europe lay in tatters. Millions of refugees were dispersed across the continent. Food and fuel were scarce. Britain was bankrupt while Germany had been reduced to rubble. In July 1945, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin gathered in a quiet suburb of Berlin to negotiate a lasting peace - a peace that would finally put an end to the conflagration that had started in 1914, a peace under which Europe could be rebuilt.

American Warlords: How Roosevelt's High Command Led America to Victory in World War II

In a lifetime shaped by politics, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proved himself a master manipulator of Congress, the press, and the public. But when war in Europe and Asia threatened America's shores, FDR found himself in a world turned upside down, where his friends became his foes, his enemies his allies. To help wage democracy's first "total war", he turned to one of history's most remarkable triumvirates.

Intelligence and Surprise Attack: Failure and Success from Pearl Harbor to 9/11 and Beyond

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God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican

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A Thousand Pounds of Dynamite

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Camelot's Court: Inside the Kennedy White House

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One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War

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Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy

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Phantom Terror: Political Paranoia and the Creation of the Modern State, 1789 - 1848

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Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens

The battle of Cowpens was a crucial turning point in the Revolutionary War in the South and stands as perhaps the finest American tactical demonstration of the entire war. On January 17, 1781, Daniel Morgan's force of Continental troops and militia routed British regulars and Loyalists under the command of Banastre Tarleton. The victory at Cowpens helped put the British army on the road to the Yorktown surrender and, ultimately, cleared the way for American independence.

Fire and Movement: The British Expeditionary Force and the Campaign of 1914

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Publisher's Summary

This audiobook exposes the misconceptions, half-truths, and outright lies that have shaped the still dominant but largely mythical version of what happened in the White House during those harrowing two weeks of secret Cuban missile crisis deliberations.

A half-century after the event it is surely time to demonstrate, once and for all, that RFK's Thirteen Days and the personal memoirs of other ExComm members cannot be taken seriously as historically accurate accounts of the ExComm meetings.

What the Critics Say

"Informed and informative, The Cuban Missile Crisis in American Memory is a seminal work of impressive scholarship and a highly recommended addition to academic library 20th Century American History reference collections in general, and U.S. – Soviet Union Cold War Studies supplemental reading lists in particular." (The Midwest Book Review)

"The Cuban missile crisis may be the most thoroughly documented yet grossly misunderstood episode in Cold War history, and the value of Sheldon Stern's splendid book is that it punctures the myths and unearths the truth so compellingly, drawing on irrefutable evidence, that you'll never think about the crisis or about JFK and his 'best and brightest' advisers in the same way again." (Fred Kaplan, Slate's "War Stories" columnist; author of 1959 and The Wizards of Armageddon)

“This is a clearly written, timely, and significant contribution to our understanding of the Cuban missile crisis." (Philip Brenner, American University)

What disappointed you about The Cuban Missile Crisis in American Memory: Myths Versus Reality?

The book never really got off the ground as either a factual narrative or an historical compilation. The author made repeated references to what other authors did or did not report correctly. Ugh! I am sure there is a real revelation to communicated, but I could not endure the pain long enough to find it.

How could the performance have been better?

Tell the story.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Cuban Missile Crisis in American Memory: Myths Versus Reality?

The personal ax the author has to grind with other writers about the topic.

Where does The Cuban Missile Crisis in American Memory: Myths Versus Reality rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is a good book, written well and well performed.

Any additional comments?

This is an important book, putting some light on those important events and understanding them.Everyone that interested at the events of the missile crisis , and what to have good understanding and the people that were part of it, needs to read this book.

The author, former director of the Kennedy Library and best historian of the Cuban Missile Crisis, actually listened to the JFK tapes, and you can, too. JFK had A taping system that only he and RFK (and aides who operated the taping system) knew about. The tapes are now public and you can listen to them online. They show that all the movie and TV versions, RFK's book, and McNamara Fog of War documentary are all wrong.

We escaped total nuclear war by sheer luck and the courage of one man. That man was JFK. No one else. In the end, he revoked the standing order to bomb Cuba if a plane was shot down. This angered LeMay, who was ready to launch the attack. Everyone ... Everyone else in the executive committee wanted to launch the attack. What no one knew, because the CIA provided faulty intelligence, was the The Soviets had warheads in Cuba ready to put on the missiles, AND had tactical nuclear weapons in Cuba, Khrushchev had transferred authority to use the tactical to his generals on the ground if Kennedy bombed Cuba.

The Russian generals had already decided that, if Cuba was bombed, they would use the tacticals to attack and capture Guantanamo Bay.v. 9,500 American military would have died. There would have been no turning back from total nuclear war.

>There is much, much more in this book. Almost no speculation, since the author has the tapes and interviews with all the American, Soviet, and Cuban senior officials.

>Do you think you know who blinked? Do you think JFK might have lied to Eisenhower and Truman about the outcome? In the end, who did Khrushchev fear and distrust the most - Kennedy or Castro? Can you guess why?

The author gives the website where you can listen to the tapes yourself for free.

What other book might you compare The Cuban Missile Crisis in American Memory: Myths Versus Reality to and why?

The Company A Novel Of The CIA (which is 90% fact) by Robert Littel. Command and Control about all the incidents where we almost blew ourselves up and almost went to nuclear war by accident or misinformation. Untold History by Oliver Stone and others (10 videos on Amazon Instant Video or DVD. A 30 hour audio book on Audible. The print and Kindle books won't be out until this fall.).

For the history that is wrong, but entertaining, try Thirteen Days by Robert Kennedy, the movie with Kevin Costner, and the documentary, The Fog of War. You might also enjoy the right wing book Brothers In Arms. Very entertaining, but often wrong on the facts.

What about Robert J. Eckrich’s performance did you like?

Excellent.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Everything You Know Is Proved Wrong. Or. We Survived By The Skin Of Our Teeth.

Any additional comments?

Listen to the tapes free online. As scary as any horror movie. Also, you won't believe how smart all these people were. Even then, all except one got it wrong.

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